SPIDER WORLD

Ok, so I haven't had time to blog in forever, although there have been times when I have wanted to. But this is so cool, I have to share.

I love when nature does her funky thing and shocks the H-ll out of us. Check out this picture of giant spider webs at Lake Tawakoni State Park (in Texas, 45 min. from Dallas).

This site has a chronology of the discovery of the web, including comments from Kim Feuerbacher, who happened upon the web a few weeks before it was discovered by the park rangers. She describes what she and her son saw on a bike ride as something out of a science fiction movie. The webs were about 9 feet high and strung across several trees and bushes.

It also describes the discovery by the scientific community of the types of spiders that created the phenomenum. The excitmement of the discovery is palpable. I loved reading about it.

Check out this email from one entemologist just last week:

From: Hank Guarisco/FHSU
Date: 09/06/2007 03:04PM
Subject: spider aggregation at Lk Tawakoni

I have answered the call of the park manager, Donna Garde, for a spider
specialist to check things out. I have been here for several days and am
making some very interesting observations. Do you know of any
Tetragnatha species that has exhibited this kind of behavior? I don't.
The females are actively building webs at night, and the males wander
around. They are often only 1-3 inches apart. It is really amazing. I
heard you identified about 10 species that Mike Quinn sent to you. Would
you please send me the list via email? I am glad you verified the
Tetragnatha guatemalensis. I recognized Neoscona crucifera (only a few),
Larinioides cornutus, Phidippus audax, Agelenopsis and probably
Barronopsis texana, Argyrodes elevatus and their distinctive egg sacs,
Paraphidippus aurantius, Eris militaris, one Argiope aurantia. There are
many Larinioides that come out at night and build webs over everything.

I have seen 2 instances of adult male T. guatemalensis feeding on penultimate males of the same species, five predation events of P. audax on the Tetragnatha, 4 mating events. The egg sacs are everywhere and they are hatching out. The spiderlings start
building webs among the silk strands which are going everywhere. Deep inside, there is Anelosimus studiosus, but not as obvious or common as I originally suspected.

I have been in contact with Gail Stratton, and she advised me concerning what to focus on. It is quite overwhelming at first! A lot of fun. I hope to return in a few weeks to take more data for a paper in JOA concerning the facultative aggregation.

Hank Guarisco
Adjunct Curator of Arachnids
Sternberg Museum of Natural History
Fort Hays State University


I wish I could go see it, but since our September is booked, I'm grateful for those that have posted pictures on the web for us to see.